In a sermon titled Soteriology 013 given on 04/13/2016 at Sugar Land Bible Church, Dr. Andy Woods went through a list of 33 spiritual positions that are a fact for everyone who has trusted Christ alone for salvation. After doing so, he said these words.
“So one of the things that we struggle with as human beings and even as Christians is a low self-image because we bought into what I would call a quality of life mentality. We ascribe worth to things or people if their life is of a certain quality, if they look good, if they’re young, if they’ve got money, if they’ve got career prospects, if they’re healthy, those kinds of things. And so we say well so and so is valuable because they have all these things. They have talent, they have money. But you see, all those things can disappear, your health can disappear, your career prospects can disappear. So if you’re ascribing self-worth to yourself based on quality of life then you’re going to be like an emotional roller coaster; some days you’re going to feel great about yourself, other days you’re going to feel bad about yourself because we’re living in a fallen world where things that are temporal can be taken away just like that.
“And God is trying to move us out of that mentality and trying to move us into, not a quality of life mentality but a sanctity of life mentality where all of us have value because of what God says about us. What God says about you is what gives you value, not what the world system says about you. So the guy that’s living under a bridge that’s got alcohol all over his breath, that can’t hold down a job, he has just as much value as the richest person in Houston, the richest, healthiest, quote “happiest” person in Houston; that person has the exact same value in God’s eyes as the wino living under the bridge because of a Scriptural teaching called sanctity of life. We don’t really think this way because we’re in a world system that speaks of quality of life.”
“So there’s going to be times in your Christian life when you’re going to get really discouraged and down on yourself and the best solution to that is to go back and apply… I printed these out for you, I want you to have these, and I gave you the verses where you can go look these things up on your own, and you can see I’m not making things up. The best solution when you get down on yourself is to go back and review your wealth. Start looking at yourself the way God sees you, rather than how you see yourself or how other people see you, or how you see other people. We have to start looking at ourselves the way God sees us. And that’s what these riches describe.”
Now that’s grace worth exciting about! I encourage meditation on the list he went through, which you can access by Dr. Woods slides or by reading the list straight from the source of Lewis Sperry Chafer’s (see his book Salvation available for free online). I know I need to do so more, and try to study all his references! God bless you, Christian! You are rich! Unbeliever, you can be saved and inherit all the riches God wants to give you if you will only trust Christ.
Biblical Worldview Musings 